A New Stage in the Socialist Revolution in China

[This article is reprinted from Peking Review, Vol. 9, #30, July 22,
1966, pp. 11-12. Thanks are due to the WWW.WENGEWANG.ORG
web site for some of the work done for this posting.]

The great proletarian cultural revolution which is
now unfolding has pushed China’s socialist revolution to a new stage, an even deeper
and broader stage.

The movement against three evils [corruption, waste
and bureaucracy] and the movement against five evils [bribery of government workers,
tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts, and stealing
economic information for private speculation] of 1952 marked the first stage after
the founding of the People’s Republic of China in the great struggle waged by the
proletariat under the leadership of the Party against the bourgeoisie and its
representatives within and outside the Party. The characteristic of the struggle in
this stage was the exposure before the broad masses of the true colours of the
bourgeois reactionaries who, in order to make themselves rich, stole state property
by every conceivable means and did not hesitate to cause great economic losses to
tens of millions of people.

On the basis of the struggles against the three
evils and five evils, and on the basis of the realization of agricultural co-operation,
the Party carried out comparatively smoothly the socialist transformation of capitalist
industry and commerce, that is, the transformation of the capitalist ownership of the
means of production. This was the second stage of the struggle.

The third stage was the struggle launched by the
Party against the bourgeois Rightists in 1957. This struggle smashed the scheme of the
bourgeois Rightists aimed at usurping state leadership, subverting the dictatorship
of the proletariat, exercising what they called “ruling in turn.” and establishing a
counterrevolutionary dictatorship.

After the anti-Rightist struggle of 1957, the
bourgeois Rightists resorted to more covert methods and waited for an opportune moment
to go into action again. During the period when China encountered temporary economic
difficulties, they colluded with the Right opportunists in the Party and concerted
their actions to oppose the Party’s general line for building socialism, the big leap
forward and the people’s commune, and tried to bring about a “great reversal” — the
restoration of capitalism in the cities and countryside. The struggle against Right
opportunism waged by the Party and the series of policies and measures adopted by the
Party in defence of the Party’s general line and the socialist system thwarted the
attempt of the bourgeois Rightists and their representatives within and outside the
Party, and enabled China’s national economy, culture and education to make further
progress. This was the fourth stage of the struggle.

The fifth stage of the struggle started with the
socialist education movement initiated by the Party in 1963 and has continued into
the great proletarian cultural revolution which was launched recently at the great
call of the Party. This great proletarian cultural revolution has, in fact, just
begun, but it has already shown its great, profound and far-reaching significance.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of
China, proletarian ideology, proletarian academic work, and proletarian literature
and art have entered the field of culture on a broad scale. In the early
post-liberation days, we provided work for all the old bourgeois intellectuals
except those who openly opposed the revolution. The Party’s policy is to let them
work for the motherland and, in the course of this, gradually remould their bourgeois
world outlook and accept the world outlook of the proletariat. The bourgeois world
outlook, however, is deep-rooted among the intellectuals from the old society. They
were linked to the foundation of the old society in one hundred and one ways. For
them to accept the world outlook of the proletariat means completely changing every
thought in their heads, which is very painful and very difficult.

Before the world outlook of the proletariat takes
command in the minds of the old intellectuals, the world outlook and the old ideology
and habits of the bourgeoisie that are still there will continue to function, always
tending to manifest themselves stubbornly in political life and in other aspects,
and striving to spread their influence. They always seek to transform the world
according to the world outlook of the landlord class and the bourgeoisie.

With the overthrow of the reactionary regime and
abolition of ownership by the landlord class and the bourgeoisie, the reactionary
elements of the landlord class and the bourgeoisie pin their hope for restoration on
the struggle in the ideological field. They try to subjugate the masses and bewitch
them with the old ideology and habits of the exploiting classes in order to bring
about the restoration of the landlord class and the bourgeoisie.

In the final analysis, therefore, the struggle
between the world outlook of the proletariat and the world outlook of the bourgeoisie
is in fact a struggle between the socialist system on the one hand and all systems
of exploitation on the other, a struggle for leadership between the proletariat and
the bourgeoisie, a struggle between the efforts to consolidate the dictatorship of
the proletariat and the efforts to turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into the
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

A decade ago, Comrade Mao Tse-tung wisely pointed
out: “The class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the class
struggle between the different political forces, and the class struggle in the
ideological field between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie will continue to be
long and tortuous and at times will even become very acute. The proletariat seeks to
transform the world according to its own world outlook, and so does the bourgeoisie.
In this respect, the question of which will win out, socialism or capitalism, is
still not really settled.” The great proletarian cultural revolution aims precisely
at solving, step by step, the question raised by Comrade Mao Tse-tung of who will
win out in the ideological field, by relying on the political consciousness of the
masses and on the method of the masses educating themselves.

The more victories we win on all fronts of
socialism and the more our socialist cause develops and is consolidated, the more
prominently the contradictions and conflicts between the proletariat and the
bourgeoisie in the ideological field stand out. That is why we have made the great
proletarian cultural revolution an important item on our agenda at this time. This
is an objective law. It is impossible to avoid this kind of contradiction and
conflict. To win final victory, the proletariat must, at all times, mercilessly
counter any challenge of the bourgeoisie in the ideological field.

All things are in the process of contradiction,
struggle and change. The essential point of Marxism-leninism, of Mao Tse-tung’s
thought, is criticism, struggle and revolution. Struggle is life. If you do not
struggle against the opposite, it will struggle against you. One ceases to be a
Marxist-Leninist if one loses one’s revolutionary vigilance and does not wage a
resolute struggle against the class enemy and alien class elements.

In the course of this great proletarian cultural
revolution, all Communists, all revolutionary cadres, and all those who stand for
the socialist system and the dictatorship of the proletariat must raise still
higher the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought, make great efforts to
creatively study and apply Chairman Mao’s works, grasp proletarian ideology still
better, develop communist ideas, raise communist consciousness and establish a
lofty communist aim. We must not hold fast to established ideas, but must be good
at learning and drawing lessons through struggle. In this way, we shall be able to
advance invincibly in this new stage of socialist revolution.